The New Jersey Devils’ season has not met up to their very high preseason expectations. They have officially moved into moral victory territory – where playoffs are likely out of the equation and any remaining positive storylines offer a glimmer of hope amid their challenges.
While there’s certainly reason for frustration, the bottom line is that the team still possesses a young and promising core. That’s been evident in their recent dominant victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets. Here are some storylines to look forward to throughout the home stretch of the season.
Allen Brings Goaltending Hope
As it stands, the Devils rank 28th in the NHL with a .895 save percentage (SV%). Most of that “damage” was done by the trio of Vitek Vanecek, Akira Schmid and Nico Daws.
Since completely revamping their goaltending department at the deadline, they’ve stopped 174 of 186 – good for a .935 SV%. Jake Allen, acquired from the Montreal Canadiens, has been the catalyst for that sudden uptick. General manager Tom Fitzgerald made it clear that Allen is slated to be the backup next season and it’s easy to see why. His 101 saves (.946 SV%) set a franchise record for most over their first three starts.
The 33-year-old Allen has a track record of being a solid, reliable NHL goaltender, but his play had taken a dip with the Canadiens. He himself has written that off as an inability to get consistent starts as part of a three-man rotation with Sam Montembault and Cayden Primeau there.
Luke Hughes commended his recent performance: “He’s playing unreal. He’s making massive saves for us. We need him to keep doing that for us…we have full confidence in him,” Hughes said.
His most recent outing against Winnipeg was another stellar one: his fourth quality start in as many games. Prior to the deadline, no other Devils goalie had a quality start percentage upwards of 50%.
Is Travis Green the Answer?
Travis Green took over as interim head coach on March 4 following the firing of Lindy Ruff. He has since coached to a 4-5-0 record, and questions loom as to whether he’s the answer for next season as well.
One thing is for sure: Green has emphasized transparency and honesty with the media when discussing storylines around the team. While that hasn’t always translated into results, there’s certainly reason to respect that.
For example, when The Hockey Writers asked Green about his message to younger goaltenders following the acquisition of some veterans, he gave an insightful response: “I’m not going to sit and beat on them or anything. We have two young goalies that have a chance to have a good future in the NHL. Adding two older goalies gives us a chance to protect them and guide them and play them accordingly.”
Green often announces his starting netminder way before the game. Ruff usually refused to until warmups and was less descriptive in any answers related to the goaltending position.
It’s difficult to fully evaluate Green’s tenure when there have been a plethora of injuries surrounding the team. Before his firing, Ruff confirmed that Jack Hughes was playing through an injury, which has evidently impacted his play. That’s on top of injuries to Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, John Marino, and Nathan Bastian.
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Another example of Green’s transparency paying off was March 19 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, where Alexander Holtz made a defensive mistake. Previously, under Ruff, Holtz was stapled to the bench for nearly every minor mistake. Green had a conversation with Holtz and gave him leeway to learn from it with some more ice time. Holtz scored a big goal just minutes later.
The deployment and success of young players like Holtz, Luke Hughes, and Simon Nemec will be key for Green’s chance to further his tenure past this season. Luke Hughes’ play has seen an uptick under Green, and Nemec has been their best defensive defenseman while chipping in with some offense as well. So far, so good.
Nearly all season, the Devils have started things off on the wrong foot. They’ve allowed the first goal of the game 49 times – the worst mark in the NHL. That’s a whopping 70 percent of the time.
Even worse, if they do so nine more times in their remaining 12 games, they will tie the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche (58) for the most first goals given up in a season…all-time.
It’s not a lack of talent that has seen them to falter early – it seems like it’s a mental thing at this point. They’ve scored the next goal after giving up the first goal 28 times (57.1% of the time.) That means they’ve been nearly twice as likely to score the second goal than the first. That has started to swing lately, though. Under Green, they’ve scored the first goal in each of their last three contests – the first time they’ve done so thrice consecutively all season. They’re now 14-5-2 when they score first. Imagine what they could have done if they started like that more often?
This is a theme that even occurred in their franchise record 52-win bout last season, as they only scored the first goal in 40 of 82 tries despite having a plus-67 goal differential. Their 21 comeback wins is now tied for third in the NHL – but that’s somewhat misleading. They’ve given up the first goal so often that they were bound to bounce back and win some of them. Only two of those “comebacks” were from more than one goal. Last season, when they led the league in comeback wins, they had nine comebacks of two or more goals.
Green spoke about the recently better starts: “You’re going to win more games than you lose if you score first every night. I’ve liked our starts the past couple games. It was a tight game…what I like is we stayed with it. We can create momentum as the game goes on and end up taking it over with special teams,” he said.
If they’re able to keep it up and evade the two-season long issue, that will bode very well for next season. Keep an eye on their starts.
Is the Tide Turning?
As has been the case for most of the season, the Devils have remained consistently inconsistent. They’ve often followed up important wins with losses, as they’ve not won three straight games since late December. They’ll have an opportunity to do so on March 23 against Ottawa.
It’s obvious the players and fanbase feel a lot better when they’re winning. The crowd on Thursday night against Winnipeg was arguably their loudest, most energized crowd in months. When The Hockey Writers asked captain Nico Hischier about that, he responded with a big smile: “Gives us all the momentum. It gives energy, positive energy obviously…You can feel that as a player. It’s a great feeling,” he said.
Even if playoffs are likely out of the picture, the moral victories now could help translate to key victories next season. Therefore, no upcoming game is truly “meaningless”.